Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2025

Document Type

Doctoral Capstone Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Audiology

Program

Audiology

Advisor

Meital Avivi-Reich

Committee Members

Katelyn A. Berg

Rene H. Gifford

Subject Categories

Other Music | Speech and Hearing Science

Keywords

cochlear implant, hearing loss, music perception, stereo, audio production

Abstract

Spatial perception contributes to music perception and enjoyment, yet it remains understudied in cochlear implant (CI) users. Spatial effects in music are often achieved through panning, a tool which redistributes an audio signal level between or among several outputs, creating a perceived sound localization. CI users typically perform worse than normal hearing (NH) listeners on tasks of horizontal localization and music perception when manipulating the actual location of the sound. However, despite the common use of panning in daily use and consumption of music, no previous studies were conducted to examine how panning impacts the listening experience for CI users.

In the current study a Music Localization task was created and administered to 15 NH adults and 14 adult CI users with varying amounts of acoustic hearing. Participants were presented with 80 different versions of “Happy Birthday” in perceived motion via panning. Stimuli spanned six different levels of Musical Complexity and were presented in four Panning Configurations. Participants selected the loudspeaker (i.e., left or right) in which they perceived the musical stimulus ended. In addition, Interaural time delay (ITD) and interaural level difference (ILD) thresholds were obtained for all participants, and the Ollen Musical Sophistication Index (OMSI) was administered to quantify self-reported musical experience and expertise in the CI users.

Performance on the Music Localization task resulted in a ceiling effect among the NH group, while the CI group demonstrated a large variance in performance. No main effect of Musical Complexity or Panning Configuration was found, and performance was found to only correlate with ILDs thresholds, suggesting this is likely a dominant cue used to perform the task.

The results of this first attempt to examine music localization in CI users using panning suggest that CI users might localize music differently when the perceived spatial location is manipulated using panning versus when the actual location of the sound source is changed. Thus, it is necessary to expand the mechanisms and protocols through which sound localization is assessed. Continued work in this area is needed to further our understanding of how this creative tool impacts music listening and enjoyment for CI users and which variables can account for the individual differences in localization performance.

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